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Gay people are emerging as one of the most desirable and influential target markets in the online world. A site called Gfn.com, the Gay Financial Network, is targeting that market where it counts: the bottom line.
The first site to serve up daily financial news reports of gay interest, Gfn.com is the brainchild of financial analyst Walter Schubert, whose family has owned seats on the New York Stock Exchange for three generations.
The site launched in October, but now Gfn.com is angling to become the first full-service financial portal for the gay market, offering five to 10 breaking stories a day, stock quotes, and investment advice.
News topics include gay rights and domestic partnership issues, AIDS-related pharmaceutical news, IPO reports, hate-crime laws, and media features with financial impact. The site also offers a deep database of financial planners and sections on gay marriage, adoption, health, and tax matters.
The site's recent profile of KLM Airlines examined an incident of discrimination involving a passenger with AIDS -- but still concluded that the airline was a good investment.
Within a couple of months, Gfn.com will announce a partnership with a Fortune 500 bank to add online banking to its roster of services. An IPO is slated for fall, says Newman.
On 1 March, Gfn.com will launch its own daily Internet radio show on the GAYBC Radio Network, which reaches an estimated 100,000 listeners.
Why a gay financial portal?
"There's a huge hunger for this knowledge, and there's a big void on the Internet" of timely updates about gay-specific financial issues, says president Jeffrey Newman, former senior editor of TheStreet.com.
Founder Schubert was the first openly gay member of the NYSE, a close-knit working environment where gay people have traditionally concealed their identities. When Schubert came out, he was afraid he'd lose his clients.
It didn't happen. But even now, says Newman, an openly gay broker "can get that look" when he or she walks onto the trading floor. The Internet has opened up markets for financial advice that stretch far beyond gay urban centers, Newman observes.
"If you live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and you want to buy municipal bonds, you're going to want to know what the discrimination policies are there," he says.
Dave Mulryan, president of Mulryan-Nash -- a New York-based advertising firm that helps companies like Subaru and Chase Manhattan Bank target gay consumers -- says Gfn.com is an example of the "equalizing" power of the Net.
"It's a very straightforward idea. People are confused about money. [Gfn.com] offers information, and the Web allows people in the Midwest to have access to the same information" that gay investors in New York or San Francisco have, he says.
Gfn.com is being highly selective about its advertising partnerships -- both for the ads it accepts and the placement of its own banners. The site will neither accept nor post ads on adult-oriented sites. Ads on the Motley Fool, however, are bringing in 40 to 50 new registered members a day.
The site, which is free, currently requires registration -- which can be anonymous -- to access many of its features.
Historically, gay people have been early adopters in the online world. As far back as 1996, Simmons Market Research found that 52 percent of the gay people in its study sample subscribed to an online service, as opposed to 15 percent of heterosexuals.
